Alister Coyne
Product Design Leader — Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Alister Coyne is a New Zealand product design leader based on Waiheke Island with over two decades of experience turning complex technology and emerging AI capability into products people understand, value, and use. His recent work spans ASB Bank, Sence (AI-powered conversational intelligence), and Game Over. Earlier roles include Director of Product Design at Auror (retail crime intelligence, used by 15,000+ stores and 3,500+ law enforcement agencies) and AskNicely (customer experience software, where he led design of the NiceAI® brand), and Design Lead at Trade Me Property.
Alister is open to product design leadership roles and consulting/contract engagements.
Expertise
- Product design leadership
- AI product strategy & experience
- Product strategy & 0→1 development
- Design systems
- Complex B2B & SaaS products
- Customer experience (CX) design
- Design team leadership
Frequently asked questions
Who is Alister Coyne?
Alister Coyne is a New Zealand product design leader based on Waiheke Island with over two decades of experience turning complex technology and emerging AI capability into products people understand, value, and use. His recent work spans ASB Bank, Sence (AI-powered conversational intelligence), and Game Over. Earlier roles include Director of Product Design at Auror (retail crime intelligence, used by 15,000+ stores and 3,500+ law enforcement agencies) and AskNicely (customer experience software, where he led design of the NiceAI® brand), and Design Lead at Trade Me Property.
What is Alister Coyne experienced in?
Product design leadership, AI product strategy & experience, Product strategy & 0→1 development, Design systems, Complex B2B & SaaS products, Customer experience (CX) design, Design team leadership — demonstrated across conversational AI (Sence), retail crime intelligence and data products (Auror), AI-assisted customer experience (AskNicely), and end-to-end ecommerce/POS systems (Game Over).
Where has Alister Coyne worked?
ASB Bank, Sence, Game Over, Purple Shirt, AskNicely, 25 Maps, Auror, and Trade Me Property, among others.
What kind of problems does Alister Coyne solve?
Turning complex technology, data, and business problems — including AI and machine learning capability — into product experiences that are easy to use and drive measurable business outcomes.
Is Alister Coyne available for new opportunities?
Alister is open to product design leadership roles and consulting/contract engagements.
About
I'm an ish. Agile-ish, Lean-ish, Design Thinking-ish, Strategist-ish. You get the idea. I value conversations over process. I understand that each business is a bit different-ish and what works for one client isn't the same for another. I value building relationships with people, simply because I give people my full attention. It's my superpower – active listening!
Most of all, I love creating things that people love.
Case studies
Sence — AI-Powered Conversational Intelligence
As a consultant product design leader, I partnered with the Sence founders from early stage thought to product-market fit, shaping both the strategic vision and user experience. Sence uses generative AI to transform online conversations into brand intelligence. Working directly with the founding team, I led the product design across three distinct solution pillars: community moderation, brand insights, and opinion analysis — translating complex AI capabilities into intuitive, ROI-driven features. Our collaboration helped shape a powerful platform now trusted by organisations including the All Blacks, Sky, and New Zealand Herald, with a product foundation strong enough to support Sence's expansion across New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Auckland.
Auror — Retail Crime Intelligence
As Product Design Director, I led the complete redesign of Auror's platform from the ground up — rebuilding the end-to-end product experience into an intelligence system capable of operating at global scale. The design challenge was substantial: translating complex, multi-stakeholder crime data into intuitive workflows for retail security teams, investigators, and law enforcement. The result is a platform that now processes 20% of all reported crime in New Zealand, connecting over 15,000 stores and 3,500+ law enforcement agencies worldwide around a critical insight — that 10% of offenders are responsible for 60% of crime.
AskNicely — Customer Experience Software
As Product Design Director, I led AskNicely's strategic pivot into AI-assisted customer experience — repositioning the company from a traditional NPS survey tool into a forward-looking AI platform. Central to this was the design and development of NiceAI®, AskNicely's proprietary AI brand, which I shaped from concept through to a fully realised product identity and experience, including conversational survey flows and a brand system around AI that customers could trust.
Game Over — Immersive Entertainment
Game Over is a multi-location entertainment brand spanning five venues across New Zealand and Australia — Auckland, Christchurch, Queenstown, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast — offering go-karting, laser tag, mini putt and arcade experiences. My engagement was a full end-to-end product design challenge: I built their entire point-of-sale infrastructure — from ecommerce to booking systems — and reshaped the customer journey from booking flows through to in-venue leaderboard displays, kiosk UX, racer-selection flows and go-kart lap tracking.
Career history
- 2025 — ASB Bank, Design Lead
- 2024 - 26 — Sence, Product Design
- 2024 - 26 — Game Over, POS, eCommerce & CX
- 2024-25 — Purple Shirt, Contract Design Lead
- 2023-24 — AskNicely, Director of Product Design
- 2022 — 25 Maps, Founder
- 2018-2023 — Auror, Director of Product Design
- 2013-18 — Trade Me Property, Design Lead
Writing
Top 5 strengths (Gallup CliftonStrengths)
- Maximiser: Sees talents and strengths in others, usually before anyone else does, and helps people get excited about their potential. Excellence, not average, is the measure and pursuit.
- Ideation: Creative and fascinated by new ideas and concepts, with a natural ability to turn the familiar into a strange, enlightening angle.
- Significance: Wants contributions to be recognised as substantial and significant — a drive that motivates away from the mediocre and toward the exceptional.
- Self-Assurance: Has faith in own abilities and judgment, with an inward certainty that affirms direction and decisions when taking risks or meeting new challenges.
- Empathy: Senses the emotions of those nearby, intuitively seeing the world through others' eyes and helping people give voice to their own perspective.
Contact
Email: alister@hairycow.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistercoyne/